Panama Patrol
Cast & Crew
Charles Lamont
Leon Ames
Charlotte Wynters
Adrienne Ames
Weldon Heyburn
Abner Biberman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Major Phillip Waring, the head of the Cipher Bureau in Washington, D. C., is called away on the day of his wedding to secretary Helen Lane by an urgent request to decipher a diplomatic message intercepted from an international spy ring. Waring and his assistant, Lieutenant Murdock, track down one of the spies, but he is shot before they are able to question him. With the spy's death, their only clue is a letter written in Chinese, which they give to Bureau interpreter Artie Johnson to decipher. Unknown to Waring, Johnson is the clandestine leader of the spy ring, and the interpreter gives Waring information that leads him into a trap at the Maing curio shop. When Waring fails to return from his mission, Murdock goes to the shop and rescues him. While at the shop, Waring discovers another letter, and when asked to interpret it, Johnson cleverly changes one of the letters in the code by means of a blotter. Johnson's information sends Waring and Murdock to California on a wild goose chase. In their absence, however, Helen finds Johnson's blotter and realizes that he is involved in the spy ring. While confronting Johnson at his house, Helen is taken captive by the ring. Meanwhile, Waring realizes that his mission is a frame-up, and returns to Washington to discover Helen's peril. Arriving at Johnson's house just after the spies have left with Helen, Waring discovers the final part of the code, which reveals the spies's plan to impede traffic traveling through the Panama Canal. The cipher also discloses the location of the spies's headquarters, and Waring and Murdock arrive just in time to rescue Helen and smash the spy ring.
Director
Charles Lamont
Cast
Leon Ames
Charlotte Wynters
Adrienne Ames
Weldon Heyburn
Abner Biberman
Sidney Miller
John Smart
Donald Barry
Hugh Mcarthur
William Von Brincken
Frank Darien
Paul Mcvey
Lal Chand Mehra
Richard Loo
Crew
Ralph Berger
J. Samuel Berkowitz
Hal Bumbaugh
David Chudnow
Arthur Hoerl
Charles Lamont
Bernard Loftus
Arthur Martinelli
W. H. Mccrary
Irene Schreck
V. O. Smith
Glenn P. Thompson
Franklyn Warner
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were Curio Cipher and Panama Cipher. A news item in Hollywood Reporter notes that this was the first Fine Arts picture to go into production since the company's affiliation with Grand National. According to another news item in Hollywood Reporter, Fine Arts originally wanted Anna May Wong to play the role of Lia Maing. This picture was a sequel to 1938's Cipher Bureau.
